Rich Eisen is not buying another 14-win run from the Seattle Seahawks, but he still sees them finishing with a record that keeps them near the top of the NFC West and in the Super Bowl conversation. He projected a split with the Rams and a split with the San Francisco 49ers next season, then put Seattle at 13-4 or 12-5 instead of 11-6 or 10-7.
Rams and 49ers split
The clearest part of Eisen’s outlook is simple: the Seahawks will not sweep either divisional opponent. He expects Seattle to divide its two regular-season games with the Los Angeles Rams and do the same with San Francisco, which leaves the division race tight enough to keep every head-to-head result relevant.
That matters because the Seahawks will face the Rams twice next season, and those games already sit at the center of the discussion around how the NFC West could shake out. A split in both series gives Seattle enough resistance in the division to stay in the mix without suggesting it will run away from the field.
Seattle’s 14-win standard
Eisen also drew a line against repeating the Seahawks’ first-ever 14-win season. He set 13-4 or 12-5 as the more realistic range, which trims one or two wins from last year’s peak but still keeps the Seahawks in a strong season-long position.
That view lands against a season in which many have already passed Seattle over as the favorite to win the NFC West and for the Super Bowl. The Los Angeles Rams’ additions, including the move for Myles Garrett, helped push that shift, and the Seahawks’ name has slipped quickly in the public view even after that 14-win breakthrough.
What Seattle carries next
Several Seahawks have already questioned how fast the team was dropped, and Eisen’s projection gives that frustration a concrete backdrop: the Seahawks are not being dismissed, just forecast more narrowly. Sam Darnold sits inside that picture as the quarterback linked to a team that still has a winning ceiling, even if the margin for another historic total is thinner.
For Seattle, the practical takeaway is a season defined by division games that are unlikely to produce easy separation. A split with both the Rams and the San Francisco 49ers keeps the Seahawks in the range Eisen sees as realistic, and it leaves the race shaped by who handles the rest of the schedule with fewer mistakes.
